Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance: Mind the Gap

156 Pages·2009·0.751 MB·English

by  Nicole Mockler, Susan Groundwater-Smith (auth.)

Teacher Professional Learning
in an Age of Compliance
Professional Learning and Development
in Schools and Higher Education
Volume 2
Series Editors
Christopher Day
School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK
Judyth Sachs
Macquarie University, Australia
Editorial Board
P. Blackmore
Kings College London, London, UK
M. Cochran-Smith
Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, USA
J. Furlong
Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK
A. Lieberman
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Stanford, USA
J. Orrell
School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
C. Sugrue
Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education disseminates
original, research informed writing on the connections between teacher learning and profes-
sionalism in schools and higher education. Global in their coverage, the texts deal with the
problems and practices of the field in different national and international cultural, policy and
practice contexts. The methodology employed encompasses a broad spectrum of conceptual,
theoretical, philosophical and empirical research activities. The series explicitly encom-
passes both the fields of schools and higher education.
The subject areas covered by the series are: professional learning in schools; contexts for
professional learning; professional learning in higher education; change; the (new) meanings
of professionalism in schools and higher education; training and development in schools and
higher education; the ‘well-being’ agenda in schools and higher education; autonomy, com-
pliance and effectiveness in schools and higher education; principal leadership in schools
and higher education; middle-level leadership in schools and higher education.
For other titles published in this series, go to
www.springer.com/series/7908
Susan Groundwater-Smith (cid:129) Nicole Mockler
Teacher Professional
Learning in an Age
of Compliance
Mind the Gap
Susan Groundwater-Smith Nicole Mockler
Faculty of Education & Social Work School of Education
University of Sydney University of Newcastle
NSW 2007 NSW 2258
Australia Australia
ISBN 978-1-4020-9416-3 e-ISBN 978-1-4020-9417-0
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9417-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008944206
© 2009 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written
p ermission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose
of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Printed on acid-free paper
springer.com
v
Preface
Alvin Toffler is credited with having written that the illiterate of the twenty-first
century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn,
unlearn and relearn. Slightly amended the series of books under my own and
Christopher Day’s editorship could read, the de-professionalized teachers of the
twenty first century will not be those who do not have an initial entry credential from
a worthy tertiary institution, but those who see this as the end point of their profes-
sional learning and are not ready to further learn, unlearn and relearn their practice.
In our series Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher
Education we proposed that our principal objective was to disseminate original,
research-informed but ‘readerly’ writing to audiences of academics, teacher educators
and leaders in schools and higher education. Teacher Professional Learning in an
Age of Compliance – Mind the Gap is just such a text. Susan Groundwater-Smith
and Nicole Mockler, both of them academic practitioners who remain close to
school practice, have constructed a sophisticated series of interlocking chapters that
manage to be simultaneously cautious and celebratory of the manifold ways in
which teachers learn.
The book has been designed to specifically examine current trends towards
practitioner inquiry as a keystone upon which teacher professional learning may be
built, then develop and finally flourish. It argues for a more sophisticated and
liberatory stance than one that sees inquiry into practice as a means of maintaining
fidelity with the policies of employing authorities in many education jurisdictions
in countries such as Australasia, the United Kingdom and North America. It suggests
that the press for such compliance leaves little room for a more critical position to
be adopted, but that if teachers are indeed to further learn, unlearn and relearn then
they need to be alert to the ways in which the press to compliance effectively de-
professionalizes them. In this respect this book challenges teachers to a certain type
of disruptive practice, both in terms of how they operate in their classrooms but also
how they examine and live their professional lives.
There exist many texts designed to enumerate the characteristics of effective
professional learning for teachers, such as ensuring: that it is focused upon student
learning needs; that it is enacted in environments that embed it in practice, that it
allows for both pressure and support from government agencies; and, that it is
based upon soundly assembled evidence. However, appealing and useful as these
v
vi Preface
may be they do little to further a more critical discussion of the ways in which
teachers may learn in a context of teacher agency and ethical practice.
The book is divided into four parts. The first of these examines the ways in which
regimes of compliance have been established within existing professional cultures,
especially those conducted by significant employers of teachers within state instru-
mentalities. It explores historical and future possibilities and enjoins the readers to
take courage in the exercise of moral purpose and virtue. The second section
examines the nature of professional knowledge itself and the ways in which the
professional voice can be better represented in a discourse of quality. The third part
of the book explores the tension, contradictions, dilemmas and challenges and raises
some thorny questions in relation to accountability and the operation of communities
of practice. The final part of the book moves to cases that allow for that which has
come in preceding chapters to be woven into a coherent narrative of practice.
The book embodies conceptual and philosophical arguments but is strongly
grounded in the world of practice itself. While the latter part contains case studies the
earlier chapters draw extensively on the school-based work of the authors, both of
whom have long been engaged in supporting and sustaining practitioner inquiry.
I believe that this book will be an important one for those concerned with profes-
sional learning in the field of education. It is particularly timely in our changing
world where major economic and social changes are burgeoning. It begins with
four problematics which, understood as current orthodoxies, might be seen to pose
a threat to progressive education and authentic, generative professional learning,
these being the rise of audit cultures, the standardisation of practice, the diminishment
of teacher professional judgement and the ‘quality’ agenda in education.
It concludes by making hope practical with a call to action, for the teaching
profession itself as well as those who serve it by continuing to pose a challenge to
the compliance agenda in all of its manifestations. Not a challenge to be taken
lightly, but one that is compelling, intrinsically rewarding and honourable.
Professor Judyth Sachs
Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost
Macquarie University
Contents
Part I Present, Past and Future
1 Introduction: Current Problematics
in Teacher Professional Learning ........................................................... 3
Schooling the Audit Society ......................................................................... 4
Standards and Standardisation: The One Size Fits All Agenda .................... 6
Subjectivity in the Classroom: The Vanishing
of Teacher Professional Judgement............................................................... 8
Quality: A Catch Cry for Our Time .............................................................. 9
Our Framework and the Book’s Structure .................................................... 10
Conclusion: Inquiry-Based Teacher Professional
Learning in an Age of Compliance ............................................................... 11
2 How Did We Get Here? Historical Perspectives
on Inquiry-Based Professional Learning ............................................... 13
Inquiry-Based Professional Learning:
Historical ‘Roots’ and Traditions .................................................................. 14
Definitions and Categorisations .............................................................. 14
Action Research: A Tactic for Social Change ........................................ 15
Teacher Inquiry: The UK Experience ..................................................... 16
Practitioner Research and Collaborative Inquiry: The Australian
Experience ............................................................................................... 18
Teacher Research: The US Experience ................................................... 19
Contested Ground: Academic ‘Legitimacy’
and Knowledge Creation ............................................................................... 20
Practitioner Research and ‘The Academy’ ............................................. 20
Teacher and School as Knowledge Creator ............................................ 23
The Legitimacy of Teacher Research ...................................................... 25
The Past 10 Years: Practitioner Inquiry as an Implementation Tool ............. 27
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 29
vii
viii Contents
3 Developing Courage ................................................................................. 31
Perspectives on Courage ............................................................................... 31
Courage and Procedural Justice .............................................................. 32
Courage and Teaching’s Moral Purpose ................................................. 32
The Courage to Be Truly Professional in Undertaking Practice ............. 33
The Courage to Be Progressive and Take
a Transformative and Libratory Stance ................................................... 34
The Courage to Tolerate Ambiguity ....................................................... 35
The Courage to Have Hope ..................................................................... 35
The Courage to Ask the Difficult Questions ........................................... 36
The Courage to Propose the Challenging Solutions ............................... 37
Courage and Compliance .............................................................................. 37
Listening and Acting on Student Voice......................................................... 39
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 40
Part II Professional Knowledge Building: Tenets and Tools
4 Mode 3 Knowledge: What It Is and Why We Need It .......................... 45
Mode 1 and Mode 2 Knowledge as They Apply
to Professional Practice in Education ........................................................... 46
Mode 3 Knowledge Production: Opening Up the Field ............................... 49
Insiders and Outsiders ................................................................................... 50
Reflecting and Reflexivity ............................................................................ 51
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 52
5 Inquiry as a Framework for Professional Learning:
Interrupting the Dominant Discourse .................................................... 55
Professional Standards and Professional Development ................................ 56
Professional Standards, ‘Evidence’ and the Review
of Professional Practice ................................................................................. 59
Quadrant 1: Review as Compliance ........................................................ 61
Quadrant 2: Review as Performance Management ................................. 62
Quadrant 3: Review as Professional Development ................................. 62
Quadrant 4: Review as Teacher Formation and Renewal ....................... 63
Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance............................. 63
Conclusion: Towards an Inquiry-Based Model
of Professional Learning ............................................................................... 65
6 Reclaiming Quality .................................................................................. 67
New Dimensions of Quality .......................................................................... 68
Transcending the Trivial ............................................................................... 69
Contents ix
The Maxim of No-Harm ......................................................................... 69
The Maxim of Transparency ................................................................... 70
The Maxim of Voice ............................................................................... 70
The Maxim of Equity .............................................................................. 71
The Maxim of Benefit ............................................................................. 71
The Maxim of Integrity ........................................................................... 71
The Maxim of Liberty ............................................................................. 71
The Maxim of Care ................................................................................. 72
Accountability, Responsibility and Quality .................................................. 73
Accountability: The ‘Elephant in the Room’ .......................................... 73
Responsibility ......................................................................................... 76
Accountability Versus Professional Responsibility
at Marius High School ............................................................................ 77
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 78
Part III Tensions, Contradictions, Competing Agendas
7 What Is at Stake and What Is at Risk .................................................... 83
What Is at Stake? .......................................................................................... 84
What Is at Risk? ............................................................................................ 87
Why Consult Young People? ........................................................................ 88
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 92
8 Who Pays the Piper? Agendas, Priorities
and Accountabilities................................................................................. 93
Purpose and Intent ......................................................................................... 95
Evidence and Process .................................................................................... 97
Action and Effect .......................................................................................... 98
Quality and Ethics ......................................................................................... 99
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 100
9 What Learning Community? A Knotty Problem ................................. 101
Communities of Practice and How They Operate ........................................ 102
Forming Professional Learning Communities .............................................. 103
The Critical Friend: Paradox or Irony ........................................................... 105
Broadening the Vision: Networked Learning Communities ......................... 106
Coalition of Essential Schools: Addressing
Dialogic Teaching ................................................................................... 107
Networked Learning Communities: Collaborative Enquiry ................... 107
ANSN: Permission to Do Things Differently ......................................... 109
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 111